The team had split in half: Kaldur, Megan, and Wally in the first half and Rob, Superboy, and I in the second. We rode behind the trucks on really cool motorcycles.
So far, there had been a fair amount of radio silence; especially with Superboy's pouting mood. But of course, the Boy Wonder decided to put a stop to that.
"Is dislike is the opposite of like, is disaster the opposite of aster? See, instead of things going wrong, they go right."
"Aster's actually a plant native to Eurasia, it's very beautiful actually...But I guess I can see what you're saying." I said.
"Superboy, clearly you're not feeling the aster." Rob stated. "What's wrong?"
"Canary." SB grunted. "I mean, what business does she have teaching combat skills to a guy with super strength?"
"That's her job." I said. "In what we do, we all need to learn that you're not always the strongest combatant in the battle, but that doesn't mean you never stop trying."
"Canary learned that the hard way." Rob agreed. "And so did Batman and, well, us."
Not liking our answers, Superboy revved his engine before speeding up. Rob and I look at each other.
Before anyone could say anything however, a bunch of-get this-FLYING ROBOTIC MONKEYS come flying from the bushes and onto the truck.
"Zephyr, Robin, Superboy: our truck is under attack!" Kaldur said through the com.
"Kinda figured." Rob replied sarcastically.
I put my bike on autopilot before flying up, catching two of the weird monkey things (like seriously, they were scary) and smashed them into the truck as I landed.
"I HATE MONKEYS!" Superboy growled distantly as I fought off as many of the evil mini robots as I could.
"Robot monkeys." I heard Rob say. "Totally Ivo's tweak style."
Suddenly, I noticed some of the monkeys were burning holes into the bus (yup, they had laser eyes) and I panicked, but was still busy fighting off as many monkeys as I could.
When the hole was completed however, I flung myself away from the monkeys and into the hole that the monkeys had made, into the inside of the truck. I instantly saw the armed guards that had been placed in the truck thrown out, as some of the other monkeys grabbed the parts. I tried to grab them, and almost succeeded when suddenly, the truck fell over and I went flying.
As the bus began to do summersaults, I tried my best to keep my head from hitting the walls, curling into a ball and tucking my head between my body and my legs.
When the bus finally stopped, I felt myself skid across the rough metal of the truck and my arm burned from the contact.
Dizzily, I leaned against the side as I pushed myself up from the ground: trying to stabilize myself. There was a full ringing in my ears that made me want to rip them off, and I bit the inside of my cheeks: trying to calm my senses down.
"Zephyr... ZEPHYR! Lina!" I heard Rob screaming and I sliced through the air, putting all my force into one blow that was strong enough to rip off the side of the truck that I had been leaning on.
"I'm okay...Just a little-" I paused, feeling my stomach lurch "-dizzy..."
Rob ran over to me and pulled me into a human crutch carry.
"Moving into a moving truck that's under attack by evil robot monkeys while said truck has no driver...Not one of my smartest ideas." I say hazily as my stomache lurches again, fortunately the ringing in my ears had stopped.
I look around, puzzled.
"Where's Superboy?" I asked. But before Robin could answer, our comma crackled to life.
"Aqualad to Zephyr and Robin. Lost our cargo, did you-"
"It's gone." Rob answered. "And so is our partner."
I groaned loudly.
"Aqualad to Superboy. Radio your position, we'll help you." Kaldur tried.
"Don't need your help." Superboy growled. "Don't want any."
"Superboy!" Kaldur exclaimed.
"I think he-" another stomache lurch. "Ditched his com..."
"Super!"Wally exclaimed. "Now we can't even track him."
"He's out of telepathic range." Megan said. "This professor Ivo-if he is alive-seems to be two steps ahead of us. Maybe we should contact Red Tornado."
Robin set me down on the ground, and I continued to nurse my stomache while he went off to examine to body of one of the monkeys.
"Is anyone else-" pause "-wondering how they found us?"
"Zephyr are you okay?" Kaldur asked. "You sound in pain."
"Took a ride on a summersalt-ing cargo truck." I explained. "I'll be fine."
"Zephyr's right." Robin said. "We would have heard by now if the other trucks were attacked. They knew which ones to attack."
He hacked into the monkey for a moment before smiling.
"Ha! The parts have GPS!" He said victoriously. "Got it, they're headed for...Gotham City?"
"That far south? M'gaan and I won't get there anytime soon." Kaldur said. "Zephyr, are you okay to go?"
I got up and flew a foot off the ground, forcing what was left of my motion sickness from my mind.
"Çava."I said with a smile.
"She means she's fine." Robin translated.
"Then I'm sending Kid ahead to meet you. Aqualad out."
***
We didn't see Kid until we hit Gotham City limits, and by then Rob and I, and Kid it would appear, had changed into our costumes.
"You changed too?" Rob asked Wally as he ran beside me as I flew, and Rob who was on what remained of his bike.
"Are you kidding?" Wally made a sound of disgust. "I feel naked in civvies. Still tracking the parts?"
"They were headed through Gotham, but they veered." He looked down at his screen again. "Wait, dude: they're at my school!"
***
We pulled up to Gotham Academy just after the sun had set, and were greeted by loud noises of destruction. We all sent a look of panic at each other before speeding inside. Robin took the lead and lead us to the gym where we sound Superboy being attacked by the-unfortunatly-rebuilt robot.
Wally zoomed ahead and grabbed Superboy before Robin threw a birdarang at the robot's head.
"Access: Martian Manhunter."
Suddenly, the robot density shifted and the birdarang went flying straight through his head.
Zut
I sent an air slice at the robot, but it didn't seem to affect him in the slightest.
Great...This just isn't my day
"Access: Red Tornado."
Really?
Only Wally was able to dodge before the robot's lower half began engulfed in a hurricane and sent us all flying into a nearby wall.
"Access: Black Canary."
A canary cry hit Wally as he went flying. I was luckily able to catch him before he got hurt, but the robot grabbed us and squeezed us into a huge bear-hug.
"Access: Superman."
As Wally and I felt our bodies being squeezed together, and our bones felt like they were about to break, suddenly I saw something flying at us.
"Access: Martian Manhunter."
The robot density shifted to avoid the arrows, and Wally grabbed me and zoomed us towards Robin and away from the robot to catch our breaths.
Our breaks didn't last long as the robot sent another Superman-like attack at the three of us.
Suddenly, a noise of boredom came from the bleachers and I looked up to see a scrawny, older man sitting there surrounded by robot monkeys.
Professor Ivo.
"Normally Amazo would study and mimic your abilities in battle, but what's the point?" Ivo stated. "You're all just poor imitations of the originals."
"So everyone keeps saying." Superboy growls. "It makes me angry!"
Suddenly, he attacked Ivo with all he had and me face paled.
Not again...
"Great, he's gone ballistic again." Wally voiced my thoughts.
"Maybe not..." Robin muttered, before disappearing into the shadows.
"Amazo! Protect your master! Priority alpha!" Ivo screeched as he moronically crawled away from Superboy's attacks.
Suddenly however, Robin reappeared behind Ivo and threw him to the ground.
"Who wants to play keep away?" Robin asked in a childish voice.
Wally and I looked at each other before smiling and running and flying away.
"Oh! Oh! Me!" Wally exclaimed as he ran over and picked Ivo up.
"I'm open!" I yelled, and Wally tossed the tiny man towards me and I caught him with my winds, knowing the boys had the robot.
I brought the mad scientist closer to me and smiled.
"You really should have stayed dead." I said, before throwing him into the wall; hard enough to knock him out but not enough to do any permanent damage.
"Help disassemble him! Now!" I heard Robin yell and I turned to see Amazo without a head.
"Dude, the guy has no head." Wally said, confused as to why we had to disassemble the robot.
"Don't take any chances!" Kaldur exclaimed as he and Megan came running into the gym.
"Superboy, are you okay?" Megan asked as she flew over to him.
"Fine." Superboy said, sounding a lot calmer. "Feeling the aster."
Robin smiled.
"Hey, where's Ivo?" Wally asked, and we all looked behind me to see that he was gone.
"Perimeter check: now!"
***
"The Amazo android is in pieces again: safely being analyzed at two separate STAR Labs. But Ivo escaped, and since he originated the tech: he's arguably more dangerous than the android." Aqualad debriefed as the team stood in our usual line in front of Batman, Green Arrow, Black Canary, Martian Manhunter, and Red Tornado.
"Capturing the professor will be a league priority." Black Canary explained.
"But we understand your mission encountered...other complications." Martian Manhunter said, and we all sent looks to Superboy, who looked down at the ground.
"Complications come with the job." Batman said strictly. "Your ability to handle them has impressed the league."
"The...Whole league?" Superboy said, and I finally understood.
So this whole thing has been about Superman? I thought we were over that!
"Given time: yes." Batman said. "Kryptonians, as you know, have very hard heads."
Superboy smiled and I gently nudged his arm with my own.
"Of course there's no shame in asking for help." Batman continued. "That's why the league exists: because there are some problems we can't handle individually."
"Oh please." Robin said, suddenly angry as he walked forward with the arrow that had been the flying projectile that saved Wally and I from becoming human mush. "If we needed help we'd never get the chance to ask. Look familiar?"
Batman took the arrow and studied it.
"You were following us: babysitting! You don't trust us!"
"We didn't follow you." Batman said strictly as he handed the arrow to GA, who in turn took out one of his own and put the two weapons beside each other: showing that they had different heads.
"And that's not you arrow..." Robin said, but then got happy. "But that means-""SPEEDY!" Wally and I finished.
"He has our backs." Kaldur agreed with joy.
Wally grabbed the arrow with a spin. "Souvenir!"
Roy, wherever you are...thanks